Star Wars: Skeleton Crew

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is an upcoming American science fiction television series created by Jon Watts and Christopher Ford for the streaming service Disney+. It is part of the Star Wars franchise, taking place in the same time frame as the series The Mandalorian and its interconnected spin-offs after the events of the film Return of the Jedi (1983). Skeleton Crew tells a coming-of-age story about four children who make a discovery on their home planet, get lost in the galaxy, and go on an adventure to get back home.

Jude Law stars in the series with Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Robert Timothy Smith, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Kyriana Kratter, Tunde Adebimpe, Kerry Condon, and Jaleel White. Watts approached Lucasfilm about telling an Amblin Entertainment-style coming-of-age story set in the Star Wars universe, and he was developing the series with Ford by early 2022. It was officially announced that May at Star Wars Celebration, with Law revealed to be starring. Filming began by September 2022 in Los Angeles, and wrapped by late January 2023. The child actors in the series were revealed in April 2023. Kathleen Kennedy, Jon Favreau, and Dave Filoni returned from The Mandalorian as additional executive producers.

Skeleton Crew is scheduled to be released on Disney+ in late 2024, and will consist of eight episodes.

Premise
The series follows four children who end up on an adventure to make their way home after being lost in the galaxy following a discovery they make on their home planet.

Cast

 * Jude Law as a Force-user
 * Ryan Kiera Armstrong
 * Robert Timothy Smith
 * Ravi Cabot-Conyers
 * Kyriana Kratter
 * Tunde Adebimpe
 * Kerry Condon
 * Jaleel White

Episodes
The series was written by Christopher Ford & Jon Watts, excluding the fifth and sixth episodes, which are written by Myung Joh Wesner. Watts, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, David Lowery, Jake Schreier, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Lee Isaac Chung serve as directors.

Development
In February 2022, Production Weekly revealed the existence of an upcoming, untitled Star Wars series that was being developed under the working title Grammar Rodeo. It was later reported that Jon Watts was being considered to direct at least one episode of the series, with Jon Favreau serving as an executive producer after creating the Star Wars series The Mandalorian. The new series was reported to be set during the High Republic era, with a formal announcement planned for Star Wars Celebration in May 2022. In mid-May, Christopher Ford was revealed to have created the series with Watts, with the pair executive producing and Ford serving as writer. The series was also revealed to be set after the events of Return of the Jedi (1983), just like The Mandalorian, and was described as a "galactic version of classic [ Amblin Entertainment ] coming-of-age adventure films of the '80s".

During Star Wars Celebration at the end of May 2022, the series' title was revealed to be Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. Dave Filoni was serving as an executive producer after doing the same on those series alongside Favreau. Another executive producer, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, explained that Watts had approached her about making a Star Wars series inspired by the Amblin film The Goonies (1985). Kennedy, who had served as an executive producer on that film and as co-founder of Amblin Entertainment, and said Skeleton Crew "evolved out of that kind of enthusiasm in wanting to tell stories in this space". Favreau had felt that when Watts and Ford had pitched the series to Kennedy, they were "speaking right to the person who was there and knows the 11 herbs and spices that go into it" and that it was "interesting hearing them pitch it and how she reacts to that". Ford stated that Kennedy had responded by telling them that she never thought of Amblin's films as being for kids, but rather being stories that "just happen to be about kids, a story of a kid going on an adventure". This had inspired him to develop the show so that it could be "for anyone".

In March 2023, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, as well as David Lowery were revealed to have directed an episode each of the series. The following month, Kwan and Scheinert and Lowery were confirmed as directors, alongside Jake Schreier, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Lee Isaac Chung.

Writing
Myung Joh Wesner also serves as writer on the series, alongside Ford and Watts. Skeleton Crew was confirmed to occur within the same time frame as The Mandalorian and Ahsoka. Ford had described Skeleton Crew's tone as being an "adventure", desiring to make it an enjoyable series, but also containing danger. He had further gone on to say that the situation would be "extra fraught" when the kids were in danger. Jude Law had said that his character was "a lot of the world that they experience: contradictory, and at times a place of nurture and other times a place of threat" and that the series would be conveyed through the perspective of the children. Law had also concurred with Ford in agreeing that the series would also depict danger, calling the relationship between the children and adults a "goofy relationship ... And then other times it's really quite dark and quite scary". Favreau had also wanted the series to convey many tones that "reflects the storyteller of the filmmaker", which had been the same method he had used when working on The Mandalorian.

Casting
With the February 2022 reports, it was believed the series was looking for four teenage actors and one 30-to-40-year-old actor as its series regulars. Casting of the four teenage actors was still underway in May 2022, with Law revealed to be cast in the lead role, reported to be a Force-user, at the end of the month. In April 2023, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Kyriana Kratter, Robert Timothy Smith, and Ryan Kiera Armstrong were revealed as the series' lead children, with Tunde Adebimpe and Kerry Condon also starring. In May 2023, Jaleel White revealed that he would appear in the series as a pirate.

Filming
Principal photography had been happening for "a few weeks" by early September 2022, at Manhattan Beach Studios in Los Angeles County, under the working title Grammar Rodeo (a reference to The Simpsons's episode "Bart on the Road"). Sean Porter served as cinematographer. The series utilized the StageCraft Volume technology in addition to stop-motion animation, headed by Phil Tippett, and matte paintings, with one of Industrial Light & Magic's retired painters coming out of retirement to work on the paintings. Filming was scheduled to last until December 2022, and was previously expected to begin as early as June 2022. Filming officially wrapped on January 22, 2023.

Post-production
Andrew S. Eisen serves as an editor on the series. Eisen previously worked on The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.

Marketing
The first footage for the series was revealed at Star Wars Celebration London in April 2023.

Release
Skeleton Crew is scheduled to be released on Disney+ in late 2024 "around Christmas", and will consist of eight episodes. The series was previously announced at Star Wars Celebration in May 2022 to be releasing in 2023, with White expecting the series to be released in November or December of that year. By late 2023, Skeleton Crew was revealed to be releasing in 2024, while a filing for the first episode with the United States Copyright Office indicated an approximate release in January 2024.